Humanity is in a strange state today, but way back when, things were even weirder.
We think of our ancestors as noble, stoic folks, but early photographs show that they were living in a strange, surreal world. There used to be bears growling on the radio, women riding ostriches, Coca-Cola ads made out of birdseed, babies in gas masks, and even babies on display as a boardwalk attraction.
Scroll through and see some oddities of the past that don’t even compare to the ones of modern day.
1
A child riding a two-headed taxidermy sheep
Early 1900s
2
A boy between two mounted lobsters caught off the New Jersey coast, 1916
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3
Laurel and Hardy costumes
Circa 1930s
4
Roland, a 4,000 pound elephant seal, getting a snow bath from his handler at Berlin Zoo, circa 1930
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5
Gas-masked nurses and babies in England
1938
6
A Coca Cola advertisement made by spreading grains for pigeons in Saint Mark's Square, Venice, 1960
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7
Children in front of world’s largest log cabin in Portland, Oregon, 1938
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8
A woman walking her alligator
Circa 1920s
9
A woman and her ostrich steed
Early 1900s
10
A business dog with a cat on his lap
Early 1900s
11
Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco featured incubator babies, 1939
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12
Rosie the bear rehearses with comedian Lew Leh, 1945
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13
Woman with long hair, brushes it off while looking at the mirror, 1880s
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14
Young boy hugging His Rooster, 1920s
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15
The 1953 North Sea flood
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16
Back when TV had knobs and dads had solutions
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17
Boy in a turkey-drawn carriage
1909
18
A group of frontiersmen with an advertisement. Montana, 1901
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